18 reasons to keep purchasing CDs and records

18 reasons to keep purchasing CDs and records

What can we say, perhaps we’re a little biased? We love our physical mediums…CDs, tapes, vinyl, etc. I mean, who ever stared in wonder at a digital download and got misty while reading the lyrics? Oh yeah, digital releases don’t *come* with lyrics 🙂 So maybe you want to continue purchasing CDs and records 🙂

Oh, let’s rewind a moment…we’re not here to judge how you consume music, but we are here to expose a valid point, several really. In our daily dive through online pop culture, we found this great online article in The Gauntlet that gives 18 reasons for still buying hard copies of music. And maybe you want to still stream it via Spotify or Apple Music, which is cool. Give your favourite artists a couple of ways to get paid by their fans. Anyway, back to the story, and here are a few points that stood out for us, click on the link at the bottom for the complete list:

CDs and Records still sound better – they do. You don’t have to be an audiophile to realize that all digital music, even including FLAC use some form of compression to remove audio that manufacturers think we can’t hear. Audio experts like Alan Parsons will tell you that there is something missing, some ‘air’. That the music doesn’t sound ‘open’, or has artifacts. Hey, we love the portability of our digital files, on our phones, iPods, etc but when we do some serious listening, nothing beats a vinyl record, CD, DVD Audio or BluRay. We’ve recorded music into Pro Tools and looked at the waveforms and you can see subtle differences. Try it sometime!

Less Expensive: Song for song buying physical media new, beats digital prices hands down (a random comparison of over 100 samples, yields a 27% lower price for media.) If you buy used there is no comparison. But here’s the upshot: You still get the MP3’s 4’s or whatever file type you want. In fact, Amazon on certain CDs sends you the mp3’s immediately meaning that you can enjoy the digital files while waiting for the postal service to bring your treasure. Almost all new vinyl LPs come bundled with Hi Res download codes…

Deep Tracks: If you are of a certain age, singles were great but they were used to drive album sales. We always were looking for something deeper, something more adventurous and that’s where album tracks came in. As the article states, “Often albums have hidden chestnuts that never make it to the hit parade. You will never discover these if you just buy your favorite music files.”

Album Art and Liner Notes: “Sure you can look at on the screen. But this has inherent disadvantages. So you can print it right? Come on let’s get real. There is nothing like the real thing.” We’re a recording studio and music nuts, and we love seeing where things were recorded and who worked on it. And if you want to make sure you sing the lyrics correctly, you’ll need the lyrics, although not all new releases come with them, some do.

Just four points that we think make a pretty good argument for buying hard copies. Here’s the link to the full article, and please share our blog post with anyone you think would like to read it, or our previous posts:

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